Over the last few years, we kept being told that “big tech” companies had an impossible-to-close lead in artificial intelligence. We were told that only Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft could possibly “lead” in AI, because they had access to the best talent, and the most data, and no one else could possibly catch up. We were told over and over again that antitrust had to look at these big companies and how they were going to control the AI world.

And yet, by far the most interesting AI developments this past year came… not from any of those companies, but from OpenAI, a for-profit entity that is owned by and started as a non-profit. Earlier this year it unleashed DALL-E 2 on the world, showing just how powerful and creative one could be with AI generated art. And almost immediately we saw a bunch of similar offerings (many building on OpenAI’s initial work) popping up, such as MidJourney, and the open source Stable Diffusion. And while Google and Meta have previewed their own versions of this technology, both are playing from (way) behind, rather than leading the way.

Just as the year was coming to a close, OpenAI’s ChatGPT got the world excited about advances in generative text as well, to the point that some are even talking about how ChatGPT could actually eventually challenge Google’s core search business. It’s way too early for that, and ChatGPT is nowhere near in a position to make a dent in Google’s search business… but, there’s an opening. An opening that just a year ago many people insisted was impossible.

There have been some other fun surprises in the hardware world as well. While it launched in 2021, 2022 is when the Framework laptop seems to have really started to take off, showing that a brand new laptop company can enter what had felt like a mostly closed market with an innovative take that is focused on (yet again) putting more power in the hands of the end users: shipping a laptop that not only is designed to be modified by the owner, but where the user is specifically encouraged to repair and modify their own laptops. In an age where the big companies are still fighting a right to repair, we’re seeing smaller companies step in and see the right to repair as a market opportunity to come in and beat the big guys.

DEFCON.social is open!

From the first DEF CON announcement over 30 years ago inviting all to attend our first gathering:

"We cordially invite all hackers/phreaks, techno-rats, programmers, writers, activists, lawyers, philosophers, politicians, security officials, cyberpunks and all network sysops and users to attend."

That's still our core audience, but we welcome artists, musicians, infosec, privacy professionals, journalists, and everyone genuinely curious about how things work.

Name: DEFCON.social
URL: https://defcon.social/
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DEFCON.social provides for open discussion where different viewpoints are welcome and a high degree of skepticism is expected. However, insulting or harassing others is unacceptable. It’s not about how you look or how hard you meme but what’s in your mind, your ideas, and how you present yourself that matters.

DEF CON grew from the Underground BBS scene of the late 80's into the giant conference of today, and DEFCON.social is another way we seek to support the global hacker community.

We are building a community where you can explore serious issues, ask dumb questions, and make friends along the way. We have a strict Code of Conduct and enforce it. We hope you enjoy yourselves and be kind to others.

Join us at DEFCON.social.

Did you know that one of our most popular Christmas songs has a deep history and origin from the country of Ukraine?

“Carol Of The Bells” is not a traditional Christmas Carol, but rather what is referred to in Ukrainian as a “Shchedryk”, a four note melody dating back to the pre-Christian era that Ukrainians sang in the spring when swallows returned from their winter migration. The song was part of New Year celebrations meant to bless each other with a prosperous harvest written and composed by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914, with new lyrics added some later by American born Peter J. Wilhousky for NBC Network Symphony Orchestra Radio around the the time of The Great Depression, and later copyrighted in 1936, despite the song having been published almost two decades earlier in the Ukrainian National Republic. American recordings by various artists began to surface on the radio in the 1940s.

But let’s back up...

In 1918, Ukraine declared independence from the Russian empire but the newly formed government "had to fight" for recognition in the international community. The head of state in Ukraine decided to use the song as a tool for diplomacy, directing Oleksandr Hoshyts, a conductor, regent, and composer to assemble a choir of 100 singers for a European tour. The choir was directed to get to Paris, where at that time, the world leaders were meeting for the “Paris Peace Conference” to redraw European borders following World War I. It was the hope of Ukraine’s leader that the choir would help them gain formal international recognition — and also fuel international support for Ukraine’s fight against Bolshevik Russia.

Ukraine’s choir was able to leave Kyiv on Feb. 4, 1919, just one day before Russia captured the city: Only 30 singers left for the tour.

During the upheaval and Russia’s attempt to completely subjugate Ukraine, its lands, and its culture at that time, composer Mykola Leontovych was murdered by a Russian agent in 1921, and he is known to this day as a martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Church where he is also remembered for his Liturgy the first composed in the vernacular, specifically in the modern language of Ukraine we are familiar with today.

How did Trump try to exploit the ECA?

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Trump and his allies used the ambiguities of the ECA to bolster their arguments that the results of the election could be overturned. The lack of clarity over the vice president’s role in the count fueled the pressure campaign on former Vice President Mike Pence to reject valid electoral votes. The guidelines for deciding between multiple slates of electors inspired Trump supporters to designate fake electors. Most notably, the mechanism to challenge a state’s electoral votes played a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection as Trump called on his supporters to pressure members of Congress to object to the electoral votes of several states.

What would the proposed bill do?

S. 4573, or the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, updates the ECA in several key ways by

-- Mandating that rules for selecting electors in each state be made prior to Election Day,
-- Clarifying that the vice president’s role in overseeing the counting of the electoral votes is only ceremonial,
-- Raising the threshold for objections to a state’s electoral votes from just a single member of the House and Senate to 20% of both chambers, and
-- Designating the governor as the sole state official (unless otherwise specified by state laws) responsible for submitting a certificate of electors in order to make it harder for a defeated presidential candidate to submit false electoral slates.

The bill allows the presidential candidate who lost to challenge a state’s certification of electors in federal courts on an expedited basis. Challenges would be heard by a three-judge panel with the option of a direct appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the proposal, Congress is required to count the electors submitted by the governor or, if challenged, the electors judged by a court to be valid.

S. 4573 also repeals an older 1845 law that allows states to appoint electors after Election Day in case of a “failed” election. Because the law never defines what a failed election is, Trump supporters cited this provision when arguing that state legislatures could appoint electors in defiance of the popular vote.

A separate section of the bill updates the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 to allow multiple candidates to access funds and resources for their presidential transition in case of a disputed election. This came up most recently in 2020, when the Trump administration denied Biden’s campaign access to these resources for weeks after the election, but we also saw this happen in 2000 when the protracted election dispute delayed the transition and endangered U.S. national security...

Following the release of S. 4573, two members of the Jan. 6 committee, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), released a statement indicating the committee would release its own recommendations on how to update the ECA, a suggestion the committee confirmed during its July 21 hearing.